Operation HA (iii)

This was the designation of Allied convoys (together with a numerical and sometimes literal suffix) plying the route from Bari or Ancona in southern Italy to Malta, and as such reciprocals of the 'AH' (ii) series (October 1943/December 1944).

The first convoy of this series was HA.4 of 17/21 October 1943 with the 6,998-ton British British Aviator, 4,512-ton British Cape Wrath, 2,588-ton British Cerion, 646-ton British Devon Coast, 7,237-ton British Essex Trader, 5,801-ton British Euryades, 7,133-ton British Fort Connolly, 7,130-ton British Fort La Maune, 7,134-ton British Fort Meductic, 7,127-ton British Fort Remy, 5,233-ton British Helencrest, 7,241-ton British Middlesex Trader, 7,005-ton British Norman Monarch II, 7,178-ton British Ocean Stranger, 7,174-ton British Ocean Valentine, 6,779-ton British Orna, 1,583-ton British Portsea, 7,599-ton Italian Pozarica and 1,519-ton Dutch Zaanstroom, but no escorts. The last was HA.86A of 20/22 December 1944 with the 1,568-ton Polish Lech, 1,365-ton British Pinzon, 7,219-ton British Samtay, 2,670-ton US Syncline and 7,176-ton US Walt Whitman escorted by the British escort destroyers Atherstone and Whaddon.